Wal-Mart Selling Music w/o Copy-Protection Technology

Posted August 21, 2007 9:59 AM

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is now selling digital music downloads on its Web site without the customary copy-protection technology that limits where consumers can play the songs.

Wal-Mart said it would sell the "DRM-free" MP3 downloads of music by artists like the Rolling Stones, Amy Winehouse and Maroon 5 for 94 cents per track or $9.22 per album. It said the new format let customers play music on almost any device, including iPods, iPhones and Microsoft Corp's Zune portable media player.

The announcement comes as major record labels debate whether dropping DRM will hurt digital music sales or encourage piracy. Copy protection software prevents unauthorized copying of a digital song bought from an online store, but it also limits where an owner can listen to it.

Universal, the world's largest music label, said earlier this month that it was testing the sale of songs without copy-protection software and said vendors including Google, Wal-Mart and Amazon.com Inc., would participate in the DRM-free trial.

EMI has also agreed to drop DRM, but Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group are still testing the impact of such a move on digital music sales.

Apple, whose iTunes online music stores is the third-largest music retailer in the United States, has launched iTunes Plus, a copy-protection-free music download service.

The big question here is whether this will have an impact on DVD sales in the film and TV industry.  As we've seen in the past, our industry tends to follow the lead of the music industry.  What do you think?